


Pain

by Jennsepticeye



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 18:26:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17854823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jennsepticeye/pseuds/Jennsepticeye
Summary: Keith and Lance are soulmates and they both think the bond is unrequited





	Pain

**Author's Note:**

> I'm reposting all my fics from Tumblr here, and then orphaning them and deleting my blog. I don't want them to be forgotten for those who enjoyed them, so I'm posting them here.
> 
> If you want to track my down on tumblr now, my user name is @jennsepticeye

It wasn’t that Keith had no idea, he had several. And he definitely had lots of ideas about who his soulmate was.

He had been suspicious of Lance since the moment he met the boisterous, over-confident cargo pilot at the Garrison. At the time he had been too busy to think much about it. Then Shiro went missing on the Kerberos mission, he dropped out of school and went to live in the dessert. Out in the desert he had plenty of sleepless nights to think about whether or not Lance was his soulmate. Out of school and far from the Garrison he didn’t have enough evidence to do more than write it off as coincidence. There was no way Lance was his soulmate. The fact that Lance tended to trip over his own feet had nothing to do with the fact that it always felt like Keith’s knees were covered in bruises, or that his toes always hurt after Lance dropped his books. So he wrote it off, pretended he didn’t even know who Lance was before they were all flung into space. After that he really didn’t have time to think about it. Saving the universe was taxing at best and kept him busier than making yarn ties on a corkboard. He forgot about it. There were just more important things to be doing at the moment anyway.

He forgot.

Until training started, that is.

In all fairness, Keith was a little bit dense. It took him days of training to figure it out with certainty that Lance was his soulmate. It took until Lance walked face first into the wall of the invisible maze and it felt like Keith had been sucker punched.

He didn’t say anything.

Why should he? One way soulmates existed, they were quite common, even. So why risk it? Just stay quiet like he did with everything else.

What was the saying? Hindsight is 20/20? So, yes, he should have said something. Maybe then it would have been easier to get everyone moving when he collapsed on the ground in agony as the castle rumbled with the aftershocks of an explosion. As it were, Keith’s legs gave out, his mind too occupied with the searing pain across his whole torso.

“Keith! Keith? Are you alright?” Shiro was kneeling next to him looking ten years older. He always did when he was worried.

“Lance…” Keith muttered. His jaw would probably hurt later from how hard he was gritting his teeth, to keep from crying out. “Lance is… Lance is hurt… hhng… we gotta move.”

“Woah, woah, woah, Keith!” It was Hunk, helping him to his feet. “Are you saying Lance is your—“

Keith cut him off. “Yes!”

“Okay team.” Shiro said, always managing to get attention and stay calm. “Lance being Keith’s soulmate is important, but we have work to do. Let’s move.”

The pain in Keith’s back had faded to near nothing, he hoped it was because the wounds were superficial and not because he was dying.

“Lance is gonna be fine.” Pidge seemed to know what he was thinking.

Keith didn’t respond, choosing to focus on the rhythmic pounding of boots on the ground

There was smoke filling the control room so much smoke. Keith coughed and scanned the room he couldn’t find Lance. Coran staggered forward, latching onto Hunk for support. Whatever was said, Keith didn’t hear, already running into the control room have to find Lance.

He was lying face down on the ground, completely still. Oh god, he was so still! Keith landed hard on his knees next to him. He didn’t notice. He turned Lance over on his back and oh shit there was blood staining the edge of his breastplate and the under suit. Keith tried to find a pulse but his hands were shaking so bad it was nearly impossible he just couldn’t stop shaking! It didn’t matter though because Lance let out a soft groan, eyelids fluttering but not opening. Keith sighed in relief.

What happened next was a blur, Keith could remember bits. Shiro split them up bad idea, the drones falling over and not being fast enough to make it past the particle barrier. He wasn’t calm at all. He was pacing back and forth, hands throbbing from banging on the particle barrier. The only reason his hands weren’t bleeding was because Allura pulled him away.

“Keith, Lance is going to be alright.” Her voice was as soothing as always but his heart was still racing. You don’t know that.

The moment Pidge got the particle barrier down Keith was sprinting through the castle long, open halls, lungs burning and legs aching. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him from collapsing in exhaustion. Keith skidded to a stop in the control room. Lance was still unmoving on the ground please get up Lance. Shiro was better off but still looked thoroughly beaten, face bloody but mostly alright. Before he could blink Sendak grabbed Allura in an awful contraption that looked only vaguely like a hand. Keith remembered being flung across the room, his own pain layering across Lance’s. He was barely standing when a shot came out of nowhere, disconnecting Sendak’s arm. Keith saw Lance slump back into unconsciousness, bayard gripped loosely. Allura called out and he was moving before he even realized it, bolting forward, fist connecting with Sendak’s face. The beast of a man stumbled backwards before a hazy blue wall came up in front of him. A particle barrier!

Pain danced across Keith’s back, he winced. He walked over to Lance where he was slumped against the control panel, barely conscious. Keith offered a hand to help him up, which Lance took but made no move to rise. Keith kneeled next to him, still gripping his hand.

“We do make a good team.” Lance said, smiling weakly despite the blood staining his teeth.

“Yeah, we do.”

Lance went into a healing pod shortly. The moment the pod closed the pain faded from Keith’s back; he slumped a bit from relief. Keith would deny it if asked but he stayed at the pod the whole time Lance was healing. He only left when Hunk made him eat or shower, otherwise, he stayed. Keith would also deny that he repeatedly fell asleep leaning against the pod. Then, after the first day out of the pod, after they bickered about Keith’s role in the fight, he avoided Lance like some scary space plague.

Nobody asked about the soulmate thing thank quiznack and as far as he could tell, no one had told Lance a thing. However, Lance did know that Keith was avoiding him. He could see the confused and hurt looks Lance gave him every time he made a swift exit from the room. He felt guilty about hurting Lance but not so much that he stopped avoiding him. He didn’t want to confront the fact that Lance might not be his soulmate or that he might be. He couldn’t tell which would be harder to deal with.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Keith was a creature of habit. He was predictable and he was always in one of four places. The training room, his bedroom, the control room or the kitchen. Being so predictable in his habits is what made it so easy for Lance to find him after a week of avoiding him.

“We need to talk.” Lance’s voice behind him made him freeze. Nearly getting hit in the face by the drone’s staff.

“End simulation.” He sighed, stepping back and wiping sweat off his brow.

“You’ve been avoiding me.” Keith flinched at his serious tone, nothing like his usual light-heartedness.

“Lance…” He stepped towards the door, Lance stepped in front of him.

“Nope, we’re talking about this, Mullet.”

“Talking about what?” Keith tried, looking away.

“You’re doing it again! Deflecting and closing yourself off. You’re even doing that thing where you cross your arms and don’t look at me.” Keith didn’t acknowledge what he’d said.

“What do you want from me?” Keith sounded defeated and his voice was barely steady.

“I want to know why you’ve been avoiding me!” Lance was exasperated.

“Because I’m scared of what will happen once you know!” The words tumbled out of his mouth before Keith could think about it or make up some lie. As soon as he realized what he had said, Keith froze. His whole posture shifted, shoulders hunching forward, red spreading across his face and ears. Suddenly the scuff on the end of his boot was really interesting.

“When I know what, Keith?” Lance’s voice had gone from angry to soft in two seconds. Suddenly Lance was close too damn close and his hands were on Keith’s shoulders. Why was he so fucking warm?

Please don’t hate me.

Keith took a deep breath. “When you find out you’re my soulmate.”

When Lance didn’t respond he looked up to see that he had stopped, completely still with wide eyes and his jaw hanging open. Keith scoffed, brushing past him and out of the training room. His eyes were burning and his throat was closing up as he shut his bedroom door behind him and sunk to the floor.

He shouldn’t take it his bad except somewhere between the Garrison and the bickering and being flung into space he had fallen for the obnoxious, loudmouthed Blue Paladin. Fallen for the way he held his spoon like shovel, the way he wore slippers whenever possible, and the way he sacrificed his own comfort for everyone else’s. Fallen for the way he still wore the poorly braided string bracelet his little brother had made him, and the way he drew the team when he thought they weren’t looking. He was everything Keith wasn’t, outgoing, people pleasing and good person. Falling for Lance scared the shit out of him.

Keith woke up to someone banging on his door, he hadn’t even realized he had fallen asleep. His eyes were itchy and crusty from crying and his muscles ached from sleeping on the floor. He roughly scrubbed his face with his hands to rid of any evidence.

Lance is at the door.

Shit!

The door slid open and Lance’s expression twisted from anger to worry. “You look like hell, man.”

Keith could only imagine, messy hair, red rimmed eyes accented by dark bruises underneath, not to mention how red his eyes were and lines from the floor pressed into his face. “What do you want Lance?” he sounded so defeated, something so out of character that worried Lance even more.

“For you to let me explain myself before you run off in a huff?” He asked, hopeful

Keith nodded for him to continue, arms crossed.

“I’ve known you were my soulmate since the first day of chemistry when you spilled hydrochloric acid. My hand felt like it was on fire for two days. I tried everything to see if I was yours, I ran into stuff, I dropped my books on my feet, I nicked myself in biology and nothing! You never reacted! Your poker face is the bane of my existence, Samurai. I just assumed that it was one way, and I guess you did too. I believed that it was unreciprocated for so long, then you come out of nowhere and tell me that all that emotional rebuilding I did was for nothing. I just needed a moment. So I’m sorry if my reaction was less than satisfactory.”

Keith was staring at him, searching his eyes, his soul, for some sort of answer. He didn’t say anything, at first. His arms uncurling from in front of his chest and pulling Lance down by his jacket. He buried his face in the crook of Lance’s neck; he smelled like the ocean and pine. He smelled like a home.

“We’re kind of idiots aren’t we?” Lance chuckled, fingers knotting in the fabric at the small of Keith’s back.

“Maybe, but at least I didn’t get myself blown up.” Keith quipped back, pulling out of the embrace just barely.

“Can I kiss you?”

Wait. What?

Keith froze, red spreading all the way to the tips of his ears. Lace seemed to realize what he’s said, stepping back and letting go of Keith.

“I-I’m sorry, that was a little to forward wasn’t it? I-I’ll just—“ Lance didn’t get to finish as Keith pulled him back down and smashed their lips together. It wasn’t a good kiss by any means, teeth clacking together and squashed noses, then Lance tilted his head and everything fit together like lock and key. Lance’s hands around his waist, Keith’s fingers tangled in cropped brown hair. He didn’t even register that they were moving until Keith’s knees hit the bed. Keith didn’t fall backwards, just stayed impossibly close to Lance.

Kissing Lance

Kissing his soulmate.

It was chaste and soft and perfect. It tasted like salt and vanilla lip balm. It was Keith who pulled away first, sighing contentedly and wearing a relaxed smile. Upon opening his eyes he saw Lance possessed a similar expression.

“Does this mean that we’re boyfriends now?” Lance’s voice was soft and smooth, a drastic change from his usual indignant shouting.

“No,” Keith deadpanned “we just found out we’re soulmates and then made out. Of course we’re boyfriends.”

Lance smiled. “Good.” He pressed his lips back to Keith’s as they tipped over onto the bed in a tangle of limbs and soft laughter,

–

When Keith woke up the next morning, Lance’s bare legs were entwined with his, a hand thrown over his hips an soft breaths across his collar bones. For once, he was content. For once, he was completely at peace.


End file.
